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Games Discussion Ars Magica
1

Hi all!

I played RPGs for about 10 years which culminated in getting the third edition of Ars Magica, creating characters, covenant etc... and then everyone from our group either went studying, got jobs or whatever. Anyway. Happily in games industry ever since, I've continued playing everything from boardgames to videogames, but it's been a few years since I've played RPGs. Over that time, I've had this small itch which became stronger as years passed. I never had the chance to experience Ars Magica.

So anyway, to cut long story short, I ordered (and got already) the fifth edition along with a few sourcebooks. And seeing how the ratio is between euro and dollar, I'll prolly be getting all of them :slight_smile:

So far, I've mostly read fifth edition and from there the most crucial parts. Character creation, covenant, spells, combat etc. I've peeked into some of the sourcebooks, but mostly act as if they are something I can use later and just concentrate on the main game for now.

It definetly would do good to have a bit more charts and it's a bit confusing when some information is available on charts and some is hidden amongst the text.

Not to make this just a prattle, I'll ask a question which I didn't find an answer and it's a bit puzzling. Do you have to roll for concentration every time you cast a spell? There's the ease factor and chart available in the book, which to me seems to hint that especially when you are in combat, you'd have to concentrate every time. Also, even though the ease factor might be trivial (0), you can still botch and fail, right? So wouldn't that mean that you roll for concentration in every situation, be it trivial or not?

Our saga will probably start next year and it's slowly taking form in my mind. I have enough ideas for adventures etc. but the surrounding was something I had to think for a while. We'll have about 3-4 players and I love the idea that you switch characters. Doesn't matter if one of the players can't make it, we can still play easily. Also, I'll prolly have one player acting as another storyguide from time to time.

I had to think about the covenant for a while and I figured that as pretty much everyone of us is new to Ars Magica, we'll just concentrate on the characters and getting them pretty much right. I think I'll do the covenant myself and just write backstory etc for it. Designing a covenant from scrach with the players seems like real fun, but I think it might over-complicate things since there's already a lot to learn for the new players. I got the Covenants book and it'll probably come in handy.

Anyway, seems like you have a nice forum going and and the resources Ars Magica has in the net has been pretty cool so far. So here's one new player diving in! :smiley:

2

Welcome to the maelstrom! :wink:

3

In answer to your questions.

No; Spellcasting does not normally require a concentration roll.
Formulaic & Spontaneous spells are cast quickly enough that it isn't much of a factor. Ritual spells might require concentration rolls if the caster is distracted. Maintaining a spell with the Concentartion duration, or casting a spell while maintaing another spell, or casting a formulaic/spontaneous spell during while performing a ritual spell all do require concentration however.

While on page 82 it does give a EF 0 for Still.
On page 7 it states "0 - Trivial: A character needs to severely hindered to have any chance of failure. Almost never worth rolling for."

I hope that I've been of some help.

4

Welcome aboard! I'm glad to see a new face, and if you need advice on any matter do ask as folks on the forum are really good. It can be quite difficult to get your first Ars game going, as there are so many options, so don't be shy and let us know how your players cope!

cj x

5

Cheers for the clarification on Concentration!

cj.23, at first I did have a bit of "what the hell am I'm going to do with all this information!?" -feeling, but I'm taking it slowly, reading and soaking in some of the basic stuff in the game. I'm already decided on doing the covenant myself and planting the characters there.

I'd already fathom that the biggest thing will be spontaneous magic and the huge amount of stuff you can do with it, so I'll have to re-read all the art sections to really grasp the limits.

Other thing I'm fearing is that we'll accidentally might do some stuff that is forbidden in the code of hermes or any of such sort, but I'm very good at the art of Handwaving (tm) :slight_smile:

But yeah, I'm really enjoying reading those books. Feels really comfortable and it's been at least 10 years since I last even held a game, but it still feels like coming back to something that never left.

My background in RPGs is spread amongst Gurps (scifi/fantasy), D&D, Rolemaster (Middle-earth), Rune Quest, Cyberpunk, Twilight 2000, Call of Cthulhu and god knows what else so AM is definitely a bit different, but in a comfortable way. Back in the day, I wanted a game like AM (the magic system especially), but I didn't know it already existed :slight_smile:

I'll be sure to ask here for recommendations & advice, although for us it's always the game first and rules second, so we shouldn't get that stuck too easily.